Annunciation

religious

The predella of the altarpiece with the Visitation shows three stories from the life of Christ: the Annunciation, the Birth of Christ and the Circumcision. Despite the small size of the three compartments, Albertinelli succeeds in constructing austere, essential spaces which display a great formal balance. The small, full figures are firmly and vigorously placed in scenes which respect the most rigorous perspective laws of the Florentine Quattrocento.

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About the Artist

Mariotto Albertinelli

1474 – 1515

Florentine painter, trained by Cosimo Rosselli, in whose studio he met Fra Bartolomeo. The two went into partnership in 1508, but soon after this Albertinelli temporarily abandoned painting to become an innkeeper, saying (according to Vasari) that he was fed up with criticism and wanted a 'less difficult and more cheerful craft'. Vasari also says he was a 'restless man, a follower of Venus, and a good liver.' His paintings are elegant but rather insipid. His best work is the Visitation (1503) in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

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